The present invention relates to a product transfer unit.
On packing machines, and particularly cartoning machines, products are transferred between two adjacent operating units at transfer stations between two parallel supply lines by means of a transfer unit for feeding the products from one line to the other. The two lines are defined by conveying devices presenting a number of pockets, each connected rigidly to the movable element of the respective conveying device, and each designed to house a product of a given shape and size. Normally, the pockets are equally spaced along the transportation branches of the conveying devices.
Obviously, efficient operation of the machine as a whole is easily assured when the two conveying devices feed the respective pockets in steps and in time with each other, so that each pair of facing pockets defines, along the transportation branch, a product conveying channel crosswise to the traveling direction of the conveying devices. The transfer unit presents a single transfer member moving reciprocatingly in a direction perpendicular to the traveling direction of the conveying devices to connect two pockets arrested at the transfer station.
If the output conveying device is operated continuously, the input conveying device must also be operated likewise. More specifically, the two conveying devices must be so timed that the respective pockets travel in pairs to define a conveying channel for the products. Understandably, the transfer device must therefore provide for transferring the products with the pockets of the two conveyors in motion, and must therefore comprise a number of transfer members, the motion of which is a combination of the continuous motion of the product in the traveling direction of the conveying devices, and the reciprocating motion of the transfer member for transferring the product crosswise to the traveling direction of the conveying devices. This therefore results in a highly complex transfer device in turn resulting in complex setup and maintenance of the cartoning machine.